My Trimalleolar Fracture Day #1

This post is the first in a series of posts of my recover from a trimalleolar fracture.  I will be posting each week as I progress through.  It is a diary of sorts for me from where I started to where I end.  If you want to follow along that is great, if not, that is OK too.  I will also be blogging a lot more as I am off for what I was told is 12 weeks.  More on that later.

So let's start from the beginning shall we?

On Thursday February 12, 2015 my journey began.  That morning as we woke up it was snowing like mad outside.  It also happened to be trash day in our neighborhood. My son, who is 15 1/2, and I discussed that since it was snowing we would not be putting the trash out today.  There was already 5-6" of hard snow on the ground and since the trash company gave us these ginormous new trash cans they weren't full enough to put out.  Well, me being me, heard the trash truck coming down the road a few hours later.  I look out the window and it's not snowing now.  If  I hurry I can get it out there before he gets to my side.  Throw on your coat, head down the basement stairs, throw on your tennis shoes, and head to the garage.  Alright, which HUGE trash can should I take out first?  The trash is most important right?  OK, grab onto the can and push, grunt, groan, and it's not moving.  Let's regroup and try pulling this baby up the steep incline of the driveway.  Hey! it's a little slick out here. No problem.  Trash can has successfully been placed on the mountain of snow at the curb.  Woohoo!!!! The trash truck has not made it here yet.  Walk back down the driveway and behind the house to the garage for the recycle bin.  We must save the world one recycle piece at a time.  Whoopsie I just slid a little.  No problem just get the can and head to the curb.  Brrrrrr it's cold out here.  Alright let's grab the can and start pulling the can toward the driveway.  No problem we can still beat the truck.  Just keep pulling.... OH CRAP I'm falling... SNAP... OH MY GOSH my leg hurts!!!! Here I am on all fours in the driveway trying to figure out if I am OK.  Being a paramedic I know I am not OK.  It feels like I sprained my ankle...again.  UGGGHHHH... Now how am I going to get up.  It is really wet and cold out here.  I turn myself over and sit on the ice.  I really need to get up but my leg is killing me and I can feel it swelling by the second.  Now what?  I'll scream for help... HELP!!!!! HELP!!!!! Someone help me!!!!!  HELP!!!!! No one is going to hear me because everyone's window's are closed and inside for the winter and it's 11:30 in the morning.  Now what???? I didn't bring my cell phone because I was just taking out the garbage quick.  No need for my phone.  I really need to get inside it is so cold out here.  Alright, I need to stand up and get inside.  I pull the recycle can over to me and use it as a crutch to stand.  OOOOOWWWWW!!!! I feel what I thought was my leg "give" and was in severe pain.  NNNNNOOOOOOO!!!!! I broke my leg!!!!! Now I have to get inside and get to a phone.  Hop across the ice on my right leg using the recycle can as a crutch all the way to the garage.  I left a trail of recycling across the driveway but who cares.  Shew! Made it to the garage.  Now to get back upstairs to my phone.  I once again hop on my right leg through the garage and into the basement.  UGGGHHHH!!!! why do I live where there are so many steps?!?!?!?!?  How am I going to get up the steps??? I think I am going to pass out this hurts so bad.  I can hop... no way not with a broken leg hanging there.  So, I turned around and sat on the steps and used my upper body to push my way up the steps to the top.  Now where is my phone?  In the living room.  UGH!!! I need to stand up.  OOOOOWWWWWW!!!!! don't stand on a broken leg.   Hop over to the phone and call Mark.  I made it this far he can take me to the Emergency Department.  I will NOT call the ambulance!!!!  It really is taking too long for him too get here.  I can't look at my leg I know it looks horrible.  It hurts soooooo much and is getting bigger by the minute.  I am so tired.  There is no way I can hop out to Mark's car to go to the hospital.  Time to call 911.  Only I called the non-emergency number because this isn't an emergency. LOL.  The poor dispatcher probably could not understand me through the tears but I'm trying to tell her I broke my leg. Long story short the ambulance came to pick me up and took me to the hospital.  It was not a smooth ride and I was the highest card holder of the bunch and had to explain a few things to them.   The chief even showed up and told his crew to believe me if I said it was broken since I was a paramedic.  Anyway...

I went to the local hospital which is not very big.  There is only 8 maybe 9 rooms in the ER.  They are never busy and are considered a bandaid station.  They aren't prepared for this... they will surely transfer me to a bigger hospital to fix this.  I am crying my eyeballs out as the nurses come in and ask me what happened and take off my shoe and cut my sock off.  Thank goodness I had sweat pants on today.  I just love sweat pants. LOL.  The doctor comes in touches my ankle and gets his hands smacked by me.  He quickly orders some pain medication and Xrays.  In comes the xray tech and her helper.  They decide they can just do the xray as I'm laying in the bed thank goodness.  There is no way I would be able to move to another table for this.  This pain med is NOT working!!!!! Next thing I know the doctor pops his head in and asks when I ate last.  Well, that's a peculiar question I thought.  Well, I had Mexican leftovers for lunch. Why do you ask?  Well, you can't have surgery because you just ate. WAIT!!!! WHAAAAATT????  Surgery?????  Apparently I didn't break my leg.  I broke my ankle bad.  It is in alignment which I may have done when I stood on it.  Apparently I broke the lateral malleolous, medial malleolous, and posterior malleolous which are all apart of your tibia and fibula.  This is what I looked like in the ER.  Yep definitely is broke in there. 

Hmmmmm... there seems to be a lot of swelling and a little angulation going on.

Into a cast I go so that it gives it a little support and since I can't have surgery until the next day.  I was in the ER for only a couple hours before I was taken upstairs to my room.  I ask if they are able to handle a break like this at this hospital.  The nurse said absolutely we have a foot and ankle specialist on staff who will do your surgery tomorrow.  Best thing is he is "hot" she said. LOL.  Everyone was so nice to me despite my pain and crying.  My family was there the whole time and as soon as my son got home from school he was by my side.  My daughter was not so thrilled to be there.  Her OCD and autism were in high gear.  They kept me drugged up as best as they could with a Dilaudid pump over night.  It was still a sleepless night in anticipation of my surgery.  I hate surgery!  The anesthesiologist came in and explained a few things and gave me the choice of being knocked out completely or just having a spinal.  I chose the spinal as I vomit after surgery every time.  I also was informed I would be taken down to surgery at 7:30 in the morning and the actual surgery would start at 8:30-9 as the doctor had another case before mine.  The doctor then came in and explained that the surgery should only take an hour unless it was worse than he thought and it might take a little longer.  He wouldn't know until he got in there.  Why me???? Why did I have to do this??? At least 6 weeks recovery time... noooooo I can't do that... I won't get paid.  UGGGGHHHH   I'm a single Mom.... all these thoughts went racing through my head....  I had some wonderful nurses taking care of me.  One just happened to be a paramedic turned RN.  I felt very comfortable with him.  They of course had to help me up to the bathroom.  How embarrassing....

So as not to make this too long I will continue this tomorrow....